From Nov. 28 to Jan. 16, the city of St. Paul will work with Eureka Recycling to replace curbside bins with single-sort, 64-gallon recycling carts. The carts will have wheels and a lid, allowing residents to transport their recycling with greater ease.
“It’s a process that (St. Paul has) been going through for several years in terms of making continual improvements in the program,” said Christopher Goodwin, communications manager at Eureka Recycling. “Really, it’s an effort to try to make recycling as convenient as possible for residents.”
In addition to getting new carts, residents will now drop off their recycling in the same place as their garbage cans.
Angela Broeker, professor of music and director of choral activities, lives about two miles from campus and looks forward to using the new recycling system.
“The bins have been fine. The only drawback is that they hold a limited amount of items,” Broeker said. “This has become an issue because of the expanding list of items that can now be recycled.”
Sophomore Lauren Bixby lives along Grand Avenue, and although she hasn’t had a problem with the recycling bins, she doesn’t see any issue with having larger recycling carts.
“I think the bigger bins would be beneficial because they would encourage more recycling from St. Paul residents. If people can fit more recyclables into their bins, I think they will make a conscious effort to recycle more,” Bixby said.
City officials say that while there is no additional cost for the cart, there will be a seven percent increase in annual recycling fees.
Bixby worries that the increase in recycling costs might deter St. Paul residents from using the system. All St. Paul residents are already required to pay for recycling through their annual property tax, but they can decide to use the recycling program or not.
“I feel that people want to be able to help the environment without it having to impact their wallet too much. However, recycling is a necessity, so if it must be done this way with the increase in cost, then I think it is appropriate,” she said.
The program begins this week, but the new carts are not supposed to be used until Jan. 16. This means some residents might be getting a cart six weeks early.
Goodwin said to continue using whatever containers residents have been using until they switch over.
“The blue bins, the paper bags, whatever they’re currently using to set out their materials. They shouldn’t start setting out their cart until the week of Jan. 16th, because if they do, we just can’t collect it because we have different trucks,” he said.
Danielle Wong can be reached at wong0031@stthomas.edu.